


when the sun sets we are both the same

by lionheart8



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, Good Person Steve Harrington, Jim "Chief" Hopper Lives, POV Jim "Chief" Hopper, and hopper realizing how similar they are, just steve and hopper having a nice talk, post-season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-05 01:19:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20480600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionheart8/pseuds/lionheart8
Summary: Three weeks after the events at Starcourt, Hopper offers to have a talk with Steve.'“Looks like you are adopting another kid, Jim.” Joyce said laughing.'





	when the sun sets we are both the same

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brodiew](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brodiew/gifts).

> I really think Hopper and Steve is a dynamic that needs to be more explored in the show so thanks for giving me a chance to that @brodiew!
> 
> the title is from the song "Beautiful Crime" by Tamer.

It was three weeks after the Starcourt Mall supposedly burned down. Everybody in Hawkins was trying to pick up the pieces. There were many lives lost and almost nobody knew the real reason behind losing their loved ones.

Well, except that niche, little group who unfortunately knew everything.

Because he was the “Chief of Sheriff” people looked at Hopper for answers. After three years he was a master at lying and at convincing people that all those supernatural things were in fact quite natural.

But he didn’t leave the mall unharmed himself. The ambulance treatment wasn’t enough and he had to take a trip to the hospital emergency along with El, Jonathan and the Harrington kid. 

Not Billy Hargrove though. Frankly, Hopper never liked that kid. El had blurted out about the bruisings on Max’s arms a few times. He even gave the kid a few warnings about it but he didn’t seem to listen. Still, there were the complaints from the neighbors about the banging noises coming from the Hargrove house and the kid was like only 18. 

So, yeah it was a bit complicated. As cold as it sounded, if somebody were bound to die Hopper was just glad it wasn’t one from their 'monster family'. Even saying that sounded ridiculous to Hopper but El called them that and who was he to argue with his newly teen daughter. 

It was a Friday night and he was over at the Byers’. Actually, him and El had been staying there for the past weeks. After the state he was in and the totally wrecked cabin Joyce insisted they stayed. Hopper, well he didn’t object as much as he would to anybody else. For once, it was Joyce who was insisting. He wasn’t exactly good at saying no to her. Secondly, it was Joyce who was insisting. She wanted him around; so he jumped at the chance.

They didn’t have their Friday night date at Enzo’s yet because there were other priorities. But the kids, they wanted to be with each other all the time. No matter how worried they were Joyce and Hopper let them go because they knew those kids had been through a lot and just wanted to be there for each other. Plus, there were always some adult-ish chaperone around. All of these meant that Joyce and Hopper were getting their much needed alone time together. 

_(And yes, they were leaving the door three inches open.)_

It was a surprise to Hopper when at precisely the curfew he put, 7 pm, Will and El entered the house each dragging Steve Harrington one by arm. 

A collective “Hi!” was heard with three voices mixing together as Joyce and Hopper watched the scene in front of them with confused expressions. Joyce had a tint of amusement on her face as well.

After a few minutes of excited laughs and what sounded like high-five sounds Steve entered back into the living room and Joyce left to check up on the kids.

The whole of freaking Hawkins knew that before the disappearance, then turning up dead, then turning up not dead of Will Byers, Hopper wasn’t the one to give a damn. Especially not a damn about a bunch of nerdy kids and some weird / popular high schoolers.

But here he was now, three years later staring at the still purpled and yellowed face of the absent parented, asshole Steve Harrington and wondering how the boy was doing. Eleven had surely made Hopper go soft.

_(Also, he wouldn’t like admit this but he saw himself in Steve. Maybe Hopper wasn’t as rich as Steve when he was in high school or he wasn’t as much of a dick to the others but he was popular in his own way. People liked him but there was nobody close enough. And now, just as Hopper liked to suffer alone, Steve did too.)_

So, when Steve was making his way to the door with a small nod at Hopper’s way, Hopper asked him to sit down a little. They spent the next few minutes without talking and with an awkward silence. As if in the distance Will, El and Joyce’s voices were heard faintly.

Only then Hopper realized that he never had a one-on-one conversation with Harrington. There was the time when he drove Steve to the hospital after Hargrove beat him up (which in hindsight was another reason Hopper disliked Billy because he had seen a lot of beatings over the years and that looked like Billy almost killed Steve). But Dustin, being the insistent kid he was, tagged along so they weren’t really alone.

“How are you doing?” Hopper finally asked throwing an arm to the back of the big couch he was sitting on.

“Good, good.” Steve answered. “And you?” he added getting more settled into the single chair he was sitting in.

“Good.” Hopper said and Steve just nodded.

Another awkward, uncomfortable silence fell upon.

“The other day, Claudia Henderson came to visit.” Said Hopper. Steve’s head jerked up a little and Hopper, with his sheriff skills, didn’t miss the way the boy’s shoulders tensed. “She was actually here for Joyce, to talk about the boys.” Steve nodded, his shoulders relaxing a bit again.

“Anyway, the thing that should interest you in this is that she talked about you too.” Hopper added carefully watching for Steve’s reaction.

“Me?” he asked surprised which in return made Hopper surprised.

“Yes, you kid. Why are you surprised? As far as she told us you have been protecting her_ Dusty-Bun_-yes she used that."

Hopper saw a little smile on the teen or more likely the young adult’s face. 

“Actually he was the one to save me from the Russians.” Steve shrugged.

It was frightening to Hopper how much alike they were. Anyone that knew both of them or even anyone who saw them standing next to each other wouldn’t think so. Because, they were so different too. Harrington was too ridiculous for Hopper. He was also not so smart a lot of the time; it was like the boy lacked some general knowledge. Nevertheless, Steve wasn’t giving himself credit or seeing how important he was to everyone just like Hopper.

“Don’t sell yourself short kid. I’ve listened to the stories of the kids. They basically paint you as a hero.” Hopper said trying to sound as genuine as possible. He wasn’t too good at that aside from with El and sometimes with Joyce.

Steve’s eyes glistened and he was speechless for a split second. Then, he shook his head slightly.

“Not so sure about that.” He said quite than his tone before.

Now, Hopper needed to reassure Harrington. He knew he brought this to himself when he asked to talk to Steve a little. He wasn’t really complaining because well, it looked like Steve Harrington was going to be in their lives for a long time (based on the absolute glee on El’s face when she was pulling on Steve’s arm and glancing back at the boy smiling.) So, Steve’s well-being became of importance to Hopper because it was important to El and because, Hopper wouldn’t have guessed so, but he found himself caring about Harrington who apparently had a good heart. 

“Then, the Steve Harrington who slept in his car in the Henderson’s road last week was someone else.” Hopper said firmly. 

Steve’s head snapped and his eyes went wide, probably of surprise (again).

“Claudia told that.” Hopper explained. “She wanted to call you in but she was scared to send you away.” He concluded watching for Harrington's reaction. 

Steve scratched his head-a clear sing that he was struggling to come up with an answer.

“You know, I was drunk…I-I didn’t even know I pulled on that street. I-

Hopper raised his hand and Steve stopped talking. 

“Let’s have a deal now. No trying to bullshit me. I can already see it when you are trying.” Hopper said firmly to show Steve how serious he was.

Steve only nodded in return. 

“Good.” added Hopper, still using that firm voice. 

“I wanted to check on Dustin, that’s all.” Steve said shrugging. His voice and general demeanor was smaller now.

Hopper still found this friendship between the know-it-all Henderson kid and know-nothing-at-all Harrington weird. They were insufferable together as he experienced in that twenty minute car ride. But the way Steve cared for the younger boy was evident and Hopper knew if Steve didn’t stop a little and cared for himself too, he would eventually burn out.

“It seems like there is a specific reason for that. Aside from other things that happened to us all.” Hopper said, feeling too much like he was in an interrogation. 

“I…” Steve paused and sighed. He then, ran a hand through his hair-possibly a nervous twitch. “I gave those Russians Dustin’s name. They gave me some drug like a truth serum. If they do something to hurt him…” Steve’s voice broke there but he tried to cover it with a cough. “…because of me-" 

“Hey, hey!” Hopper clapped his hands to stop Steve from spiraling and to get his attention. _(If only he knew Steve did the same to make the kids listen to him.)_ “The Russians are gone. They won’t be messing with Hawkins anymore.”

Steve gulped in front of him. Hopper could see that the boy was hesitating to believe that and he had every right to. The wise thing to do after everything they have been through was to second guess and check up on everything. He still couldn’t believe that Joyce’s freaking magnet theory lead them to some supernatural experiments of the Russians.

“Trust me. I got the word of Dr.Owens. To us, the biggest threat is mind flayer thing. To the US government and army, it’s the Russians.” Hopper said.

Steve silently nodded. He seemed to believe Hopper this time but he was still looking down. Only then, it hit Hopper what was actually bothering Steve. Looked like Harrington was a master at blaming himself for the things that wasn’t his fault. He probably couldn’t come close to Hopper though, considering how much he blamed himself for Sara’s death.

“Harrington. With the thing they gave you, you had no chance but to talk. Nothing is your fault kid.” Hopper said in his softest voice which even surprised him.

Steve looked up with proper tears in his eyes. He blinked rapidly and looked away for a second. He must have been desperately waiting someone to tell him this, Hopper thought.

“Thanks.” Steve said with a truly grateful smile. (But if they were as much alike as Hopper thought them to be, Steve would keep blaming himself deep down.)

Hopper suddenly found himself smiling back which was a shock on its own. He quickly went back to his serious face and there was silence again. Not the awkward kind in the beginning. It was a more comfortable one.

“I don’t know how you deal with all six of those kids. I can’t even deal with two and Will is basically an angel.” Hopper said a few minutes later, to lift the mood.

“I don’t know either. Those shits are real trouble but they haven’t burned anything down on my watch so…” Steve replied shrugging with a small laugh.

“What you are doing for Dustin, for Max, for all of them-it’s good Harrington.” Hopper said, unintentionally back at his soft voice.

“Thanks, I hope they feel the same chief. Like I doubt Wheeler feels the same.” Steve said smiling. “For whatever’s worth, I mean I don’t know if me saying this means something to you but, you taking Eleven in that’s really good too.” Steve said at a paralleling soft voice.

Truthfully, Hopper had no idea why but it meant something to the man hearing it out loud. He never thought he was doing something to be thanked for when he gave El a home. The kid need a home after all and somehow she gave him a chance at being a father again. Now, the two of them were a family. Aside from Joyce nobody said anything about him doing all this. A freshly out of high school boy was only the second person.

Hopper knew the Harringtons well, like the rest of Hawkins did. He knew they weren’t around much. Whenever he got called up to the Harrington residence for noise complaints the parents’ car would be missing. Steve didn’t even call them from the hospital last year, saying they wouldn’t care. It wasn’t half as what El went through but Hopper was the one person to know everybody’s trauma was for themselves. The fact that Steve pointed out him taking Eleven in had a deeper meaning because of all this, because Harrington knew how it felt to not have a family around.

“It means more than you can think of Harrington.” Hopper said smiling and nodding and getting more emotional than he intended to at the start of this conversation.

Ten minutes after Steve left, Joyce came back and sat next to Hopper.

“Looks like you are adopting another kid, Jim.” she said laughing.

Oh shit, I think I am, Hopper thought but he was still smiling outside.

**Author's Note:**

> This was for a gift exchange with brodiew , the prompt was:
> 
> "AU - If Hopper had survived Starcourt, write a scene where he and Steve interact. other characters can be present -but focus on Steve and Hop"
> 
> I hope I was able to deliver on the prompt!
> 
> And to everybody else that read it hope you liked it, please leave a comment on the way!
> 
> you can talk to me on my tumblr too @jon-astronaut
> 
> As we all know (hope) Hopper is alive, I'm rooting for Steve and Hopper scenes in s4.


End file.
